The British banking giant, Barclays (LSE: BARC) has reportedly frozen its plans of launching a desk for cryptocurrency trading. Whether this is remain of the pressures from the regulators or based on other reasons, like inadequate demand for cryptocurrency services from mutual funds, the reason for the back up remains unknown.

Financial News London reported, that a bunch of Barclays senior executives has recently stopped working on the crypto-related project. One of the persons behind the project, Chris Tyrer – the man who was leading the “digital assets project” of the bank, is said to have chosen a different path distanced from Barclays, as the initiative was put “on ice” in September.

Earlier this year, four of the bank’s executives was reportedly evaluating the long-term growth of cryptocurrencies as a benefit class. The demand of cryptocurrencies among the clients was also explored, as well as the needed IT infrastructure when it comes to building up a trading platform.

It remains unclear, if any further conclusions or targets of the project was reached by the executives by the time when the decision makers of Barclays decided to abort the mission.

Back in April, the announcement about the plans of launching a cryptocurrency trading platform was published by close sources of the bank.The aim of the project was to come closer to the demands of the banks clients, which include large investors and hedge funds. At the time the bank’s representatives, including the CEO of Barclays, Jes Staley denied to have any particular plans for such a crypto-related platform. According to the sources, the bank had already conducted initial demand and further evaluations.

Staley commented the topic at the annual general meeting of Barclays, saying:

“Cryptocurrency is a real challenge for us because, on the one hand, there is the innovative side of it and wanting to stay in the forefront of technology’s improvement in finance,” Staley told shareholders. “On the other side of it, there is the possibility of cryptocurrencies being used for activities that the bank wants to have no part of.”

However, last July Barclays filed two patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office – both of them cryptocurrency related.